ACHS senior Kayden Molina is taking a mere three classes this year, and he insists the extra sleep from his lighter schedule “keeps him going.”

But Kayden isn’t just your typical exhausted high schooler– those few extra hours of rest fuels him through jam-packed days running a photography business.

“I wanted to take psychology and other classes, but a photography business takes so much time,” he said. “Like today, I have [to cover] a golf match, I have to go to football, and then I have to go to another football game– it takes up literally your entire day.”

Since partnering with the ACHS Athletic Department, Kayden has become a familiar presence on the sidelines, capturing images for nearly all of the 19 sports the school offers. He also works with dozens of student clients, charging $15 per game for a package of 10 to 15 photographs of them in action.

Since launching his photography Instagram account, @MolinaLens, in 2023 (a username that he credits to ChatGPT), he’s amassed almost 1,100 followers–most of them students eagerly awaiting his pictures. In fact, Kayden said that many students call him “Molly,” assuming his first name is Molina based on the account. “Honestly, at this point, it’s a nickname,” he said.

Kayden now photographs teams across the DMV, including the professional women’s soccer team DC Power and youth basketball organization Hoop Kids Elite. Some jobs, he said, last up to 14-hours straight.

Despite his fast-growing portfolio, Kayden insists photography didn’t come naturally. After receiving a camera for Christmas in 2022, he barely touched it–until he moved from Pennsylvania to Alexandria the next year. Faced with boredom in a new city, he decided to take the camera to a local game. Afterwards, someone approached him and offered to pay him for the pictures.

“In that moment, I was like, okay, this could be something I can do,” he said. “And it just kind of went from there.”

Kayden has never taken a photography class and says YouTube has been “his best friend” throughout his young career. “That’s the best tip I can give. If you don’t know something, there’s always something on YouTube.”

But he attributes most of his improvement to trial and error. “You’re gonna have a lot of photos that are gonna be really bad,” he said. “But you can’t be mad at yourself when something’s not going your way in the beginning. It gets better. It really does.”

He compared two photos of the same client–one he’d taken in 2023, and another in 2025. “The first picture is super dark, it’s super grainy, and blurry. The second picture is clear as day,” he said. “It’s just crazy to see him growing, and also my photography growing,” he added.

Kayden’s improvement also comes from learning camera angles and where to position himself. “You always want to be as close as possible but not too close that you’re getting in their personal space,” he said. “And during a football game or basketball game, if you know that our team is going one way, you want to be on that side.”

Basketball, he added, is his favorite sport to photograph. “I really like basketball, just because of all the motion and how close everybody is,” he said. “It’s easy to get shots, too.”

But being that close also has risks. “I’ve definitely gotten hit by a lot of players during basketball season,” he said. “I remember one time, this JV player was going up for a layup and someone fouled him. I was sitting with my legs kind of open, and he fell and slid back into me… he was, like, sitting in my lap.”

Kayden said the independence photography gives him helps him stay committed– something he didn’t have at previous jobs. He’s waited tables at Rustico, rented out boats at GoBoat, worked the register at McDonald’s, but was often underestimated.

“A lot of people don’t hire me because I have a baby face. They think I’m like 12,” he said. “I used to work at McDonald’s when I was 14 in Pennsylvania, and I moved to Alexandria and tried to go back to McDonald’s and they said I look like I’m 10 years old, so they turned me away.”

“I think that’s another reason why I kind of turned to photography,” he said. “I can do my own thing, and I still get money from it.”

As he looks toward college, Kayden said he’s “stuck” between studying media and pursuing his long-standing interest in criminal justice.

“I always wanted to do something in law, like being an attorney,” he said. During his sophomore year, he took a criminal justice class at ACHS, and through debates and mock trials, he said he “fell in love with being right.”

Kayden attributes much of his success in photography to this very stubbornness. “The opportunities aren’t going to come to you. You got to go find them,” he said. “So every time I saw one, like that a team needed a media day, I’m the first one to raise my hand and say ‘Hey, I’ll do it for free.’ You have to take those opportunities. You can’t let them just wander around.”

He said his biggest inspirations are his mom and dad. “They basically just keep me growing, they keep my adrenaline pumping. They’re always the first to repost [my photos]. They’re just the best supporters.”

His mom, a former Division One soccer player, has helped him understand the importance of athletic photography and the power of “capturing live moments and turning them into forever memories.”

As for advice he’d offer budding photographers, “Don’t overcharge,” he said. “Don’t be mad when people think your photos aren’t good. You’re just learning. You’re not the best yet.”

Kayden said the toughest part of being a young entrepreneur is balancing school and work.

“My grades aren’t the best,” he said. “But that’s kind of the fun of being an entrepreneur. “People doubt you for your grades, but then you turn around and you’re more successful than them.”